NEW YORK — When first-quarter earnings start rolling in from the nation’s biggest banks Wednesday, the question will be: Can boring be profitable?

Banks are expected to report significantly lower returns from stock and bond trading as Wall Street shifts from a higher-risk model that drove huge profits over the past decade but also helped contribute to the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession.

The sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which followed the financial crisis, is not yet in full effect. But many firms have already moved to comply with its provisions limiting the amount of trading that can be done with their own capital.

Instead, banks are relying more on traditional lending services, as well as advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and stock and bond sales. Among its many provisions, the new law requires banks to hold more high-quality capital and to rely less on cheaper, short-term funding, cutting into the bottom line but increasing stability.

The result is likely to be somewhat steadier but produce less eye-popping profits. And at least in this year’s first quarter, banking revenue overall is likely to be flat or even a bit lower.

Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods expect profits in fixed-income currency and commodity trading at investment banking giants such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to decline by as much as 35 percent from the same time last year.

Still, revenues from advisory businesses are expected to fare better, given the improving economy and a surge in mergers and acquisitions such as AT&T’s recent $39 billion bid for Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile unit.

“Bank revenues will be challenged in the quarter with declining earning assets due to deleveraging consumers, reduced fees due to Dodd-Frank implementation and flat net interest margins,” KBW analysts wrote in a recent note previewing first-quarter earnings. “It is probably fair to say that Dodd-Frank will go down in history as one of the most powerful bills to be passed in the financial sector.”

“Deleveraging” refers to consumers reducing their overall debt, which leads to lower interest profits for big credit card issuers such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. The net interest margin is the difference between the rates at which banks borrow and lend, a key driver of profits that has been increasingly pinched in the current low-rate environment.

JPMorgan, which was the most consistent performer during the financial crisis, will be the first bank to report its earnings Wednesday.

Analysts expect it to report earnings of $1.16 per share on revenue of $25.46 billion. While that would indicate profit growth, it would represent a decline in underlying revenue from $28.17 billion last year.

Lately, much of the bank’s profit has been driven not by increased revenue but by a reduction in the amount set aside for future loan losses, a reflection of the improving economy.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon is likely to say on the bank’s conference call Wednesday that his bread-and-butter business of lending to corporate clients is strong but limited by the continued reluctance of companies to take risks and borrow.

Analysts and investors will also be listening closely to anything Dimon has to say about Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s amendment to Dodd-Frank that, if implemented, would cost banks such as his up to $20 billion a year in fees charged to retailers when customers used debit cards for purchases.

Banks are pushing bills in both the House and the Senate to delay for two years implementation of the amendment. And many view such a delay as tantamount to killing the measure.

The delay efforts have significant momentum in both congressional chambers despite strong support for the amendment from retailers and many consumer groups. Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, recently came out in favor of delaying implementation of Durbin’s amendment, a big win for banks.

Bank of America on Friday will be the next big financial firm to report earnings.

BofA, as the bank is known, ran into serious trouble during the financial crisis following its huge investment in subprime mortgage lending through its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. And its capital plan was rejected by the Federal Reserve Board.

Unlike with JPMorgan, which won approval to return 25 cents per share to investors, regulators did not think BofA was stable enough to start returning capital.

BofA Chief Executive Brian Moynihan is expected to face questions about why the Fed rejected the proposed dividend, which indicates BofA did not fare well on a recent “stress test” by regulators to see how it would perform in the face of another financial crisis.

Analysts expect BofA to earn about 28 cents per share on revenue of $27.08 billion. Last year, it also earned 28 cents per share on revenue of $31.97 billion. Analysts at Citigroup predict trading revenue at the bank has dropped by as much as 20 percent since last year.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will report earnings next week — Goldman Sachs on Tuesday and Morgan Stanley on Thursday.

Citigroup recently lowered its projection for Goldman Sachs from a profit of $4.95 per share to $3.50 per share, driven by a 20 reduction to $4.75 billion in the bank’s core fixed income, currency and commodities trading revenue.